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Tuesday, January 22, 2013

37 foreigners die at Algerian hostage crisis, 7 missing

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http://sg.news.yahoo.com/37-foreigners-die-algeria-gas-plant-7-missing-143554013--sector.html?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

A total of 37 foreign workers died in a hostage crisis at an Algerian desert gas plant and seven are still missing, Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal said on Monday.


Sellal also told a news conference that a Canadian had coordinated the attack by Islamists on the site near the Libyan border.

Earlier an Algerian security source told Reuters that documents found on the bodies of two militants had identified them as Canadians, as special forces scoured the plant following Saturday's bloody end to the crisis.

Canada's foreign affairs department said it was seeking information, but referred to the possible involvement of only one Canadian.

Sellal said 29 Islamists had been killed in the siege, which Algerian forces ended on Saturday by storming the plant, and three had been captured alive.

American, British, French, Japanese, Norwegian, Filipino and Romanian workers are dead or missing after the attack, for which veteran Islamist fighter Mokhtar Belmokhtar has claimed responsibility on behalf of al Qaeda.

Initially the raiders in Algeria had tried to hijack a bus carrying foreign workers to a nearby airport and take them hostage. "They started firing at the bus and received a severe response from the soldiers guarding the bus," Sellal said. "They failed to achieve their objective, which was to kidnap foreign workers from the bus."

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